Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Thank you, Henry Cavill. I love you. Sincerely, Angela

It’s almost release week for ON THE SCENT, and I thought, why not pay tribute to the man who helped me write the thing. Henry Cavill. Seriously. He did! Here’s how:

I’m a big newsreader. I should mention that upfront.

I’d just finished a book I wasn’t sure about — it’s still unpublished — and I was feeling the pressure to publish something soon, or else all of the kind people who’d read CRY WOLF and loved it would lose interest in reading anything else from me (if they hadn’t already). I was brainstorming ideas for a new book when I read a headline.

“Italian Cat Inherits £10m From Owner.”

I read the article, and immediately, my mind was ping-ponging ideas all over the place. I started writing ON THE SCENT that weekend, featuring a sexy private investigator protecting a pretty nurse and her inherited pets from harm.

It was only a few weeks later that the sexy private investigator began to develop certain characteristics that resemble a certain sexy British actor. I was again surfing news headlines, back in January 2011, and I read, “Henry Cavill cast as new Superman.”

Shut up!

I LOVE Henry Cavill….but what about Brandon Routh. I LOVE Brandon Routh, too. Oh, no. So conflicted.


Those were my thoughts. I won’t even mention how big of a Superman fan I was or how excited/conflicted I was about this news. I was really upset on Brandon Routh's behalf that he'd been passed over for the role he'd played in Superman Returns. I should also note that until that point, I only loved Henry Cavill because — and I’m almost ashamed to admit this — he’d caught my attention a couple of years before, being that I am a Twihard. There was an interview with him
From Entertainment Weekly
, discussing how he felt about Stephenie Meyer claiming him as her “dream choice” to play Edward Cullen. I watched the clip and…my goodness, he was gorgeous! And British! Instant love.

I did eventually watch “The Tudors” just to see something Henry was in. Wasn’t a huge fan of the show, but I loved Charles. Basically, after a point, I fastforwarded until I got to any scene with Charles in it. I more enjoyed Henry’s horror film offerings, “Blood Creek” and “Hellraiser: Hellworld,” but I am weird like that.

Anyway, back to the point of this post.

After it was announced Henry was playing Clark/Superman, I became slightly obsessed with him. I got my Entertainment Weekly in the mail with him on the cover, and I pinned some scans of those pictures to my cubicle at work and to my home computer's desktop.

I started to describe the hero of my book, Zachary Collins, like this:
“The torn and tattered old article had been a brief story previewing an upcoming season of The Psychic Detective. A publicity shot of Zachary Collins with his thick, dark hair, square-jawed masculinity, and eyes so blue they’d reminded her of the Georgia sky on a sunny day had taken up most of the page. His charisma in print had packed such a wallop, it was easy to understand why the man had been cast in his own TV show. Who the heck cared if he was psychic or a detective? The man was gorgeous.”

The more I wrote, the more Henry embodied Zach in my head. Zach’s not British, but he is gorgeous, tall, strong and a bit of a tortured hero.

Of course, I don’t know Henry Cavill, so I based Zach on his looks alone. My book was finished and sold to Harper Impulse before I saw “Man of Steel” but I’m pretty sure Henry would be perfectly cast as Zach if anyone, you know, wanted to turn ON THE SCENT into a movie or anything (eh hmmm, hint, hint, Hollywood).

Oh, and to prove I was a big Henry Cavill fan before I ever saw “Man of Steel,” I, uh, actually wrote the man a fan letter. I wished him good luck in the role and even mentioned that he had inspired the hero in my book.

So imagine my delight when I came home from work on July 12 and found a large envelope, postmarked from Jersey in the UK, sitting in my mailbox. I opened it and immediately did a Snoopy dance in my head and I might have even squealed in delight aloud. It was an autographed photo of him, dedicated to me.

Further proof that Henry Cavill is hero-worthy material, don’t you think?

1 comment:

Abby Niles said...

That's awesome! I'm almost as jealous as I was when you hugged Ian Somerhalder. Almost.

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